The wearing of a protective face mask has become standard procedure in many health care and other related activities. The use of a face mask is important, for example, to lab technicians during the conduction of tests, to nurses in the care of contagious patients, to physicians during surgery and to dentists working in a patient's mouth.
With the rapid increase in the spread of infectious diseases such as AIDS, the use of protective equipment, including masks, has become even more important. The Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Ga., has found that AIDS can be passed by contact with body fluids. Contact of AIDS contaminated body fluids with another person's source of body fluids, i.e. eyes, nose, mouth, etc., can pass the disease. It is therefore necessary to prevent a patient's body fluids from contacting the eyes, nose and mouth of an attendant.
The typical previously developed protective mask covers the wearer's face from the bridge of the nose to below the chin, and is generally designed to filter out germs and other particulates. Unfortunately, a mask designed to prevent the passage of germs has little value in preventing liquids from reaching the face, and thus normal face masks provide the wearer with no protection against the patient's body fluids which may contain the AIDS virus. A face mask designed to prevent the passage of liquids from the exterior of the mask to the face of the wearer is disclosed in co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 104,807, Oct. 2, 1987, to Hubbard et al, entitled Body Fluids Barrier Mask. The Hubbard mask prevents splashed or thrown liquids from penetrating through the mask to the wearer's mouth and nose, which is particularly important due to the aforementioned spread of AIDS. However, the Hubbard mask does not provide protection for the eyes.
Other protective masks, such as the Irema Shield Mate (Catalog No. SM5000), while serving to generally keep liquids from the eyes of a wearer, are susceptible to problems which detract from their effectiveness. In such masks, a solid sheet of relatively stiff clear plastic is fixed by double sided tape to opposite ends of the mask. When the mask is placed on a wearer's face, the plastic tends to remain flat and therefore pulls away from the contours of the face creating gaps. Additionally, the tendency of the visor to remain straight forces the plastic into the wearer's forehead which causes discomfort, and it is necessary to add a foam strip across the top edge of the visor to provide a comfortable fit as well as to prevent oils and perspiration from fouling the visor. The gaps between the visor and the mask are, obviously, openings for the liquids which are supposed to be excluded.
If the wearer of the Irema Shield Mate mask attempts to compensate for failure of the plastic to conform to their face, over compensation generally results and the plastic is creased. Plastic is susceptible to glare and reflections, and a crease in the plastic tends to increase the glare and reflections by providing more surfaces for light to strike.
Another liquid shield is available from Ballard Medical Products under the product name Safety Shield Kit. The Safety Shield Kit contains a protective mask, a separate eyeshield and a pair of latex gloves. The eyeshield is similar to a pair of goggles with its own elastic fastener for securing around the wearer's head. The multiple components of the Ballard Kit detract from the convenience of a one piece shield. Thus, there is a need for a convenient protective eye shield visor that will prevent the passage of liquid to the eyes of the wearer, will not crease and does not reflect glare into the eyes.